The joint venture of Moviescore Media and Kronos Records will release La Mula – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally and on CD on October 22, 2013. The soundtrack features the original score composed by Spanish composer Oscar Navarro.
"This movie is about friendship, loyalty, and love," said Navarro.
Based on the novel by Juan Eslava Galán, La Mula is the story of a soldier who finds a mule on the battlefields and travels through the country, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. As described in The Guardian, "It is a story of love during war and of a stubborn, long-eared, four-legged animal that wanders through the battlefields of Spain's bloody civil war in the 1930s." The film earned its star Mario Casas the Best Actor award at the 2013 Festival de Málaga de Cine (Málaga Film Festival).
"There is a scene that almost made me cry when I saw it the first time and I think it is the key to the whole movie," described Navarro. "This scene speaks about friendship, about loosing a friend in a war that nobody wants to participate like the Spanish Civil War. You can loose time, you can loose money, you can loose your freedom, but loosing your best friend in a stupid war or a member of your family is one of the most painful parts in a war."
La Mula is composer Oscar Navarro's first feature film. Navarro was born in the village of Novelda (Alicante, Spain), and at an early age began studying the clarinet. He continued his composition and conducting studies at the Allegro International Music Academy of Valencia and later the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music (Los Angeles, USA) to study Scoring for Motion Picture and TV.
Navarro has composed for over 15 short films with award-winning directors including Fran Casanova, Rene Rhi, Alan Fischer, and Pedro Jaen. This year Navarro earned his second and third nominations from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for the La Mula (Best Album) and Project K9 (Best Music for Short Film). Navarro has been recognized internationally by F. Lavagnino Musica e Cinema (Italy), XIV Aubagne International Film Festival (France), and the Ubeda Film Music Festival Jerry Goldsmith Awards (Spain).
In addition to his work composing for film, Navarro has worked as the conductor and orchestrator for the feature film Thunder Captain by Spanish composer Luis Ivars, and has created concert suites of Christopher Young's music including Hellraiser, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and Spiderman 3. Upcoming film projects include Una de piratas by Spanish Director Alfredo Navarro, the film Eureka, and the TV series No salgas que te comen by Director Fran Casanova. His 2013-14 classical engagements include appearing at the Tanglewood Music Festival as a guest composer, and a performance of his "II Concerto" for clarinet, performed by The Cleveland Orchestra.
Navarro drew from his Spanish background for the music. "I used a symphony orchestra principally, but there are some parts that I wanted mix typical instruments from the Spanish culture like the Spanish Box, the castanets, a Flamenco voice and a Spanish guitar with the orchestra. This mix was really interesting and worked really well in the movie."
He continued, "I think the use of a symphony orchestra helps a lot to create different moods, the solo violin and cello used in different parts of the movie mixed with the sound of the orchestra gives to the scene more drama. The mix of the Flamenco Box, Tuba and harp/harpsichord helped to increase the comic moments in some of the comedic scenes."